The Good and Bad of Social Media

We live in society nowadays, that have adopted the mindset that everything must be innovative, and you need to be connected on the various social media outlets, to not only receive our day-to-day news, but to pass along some of our own words of wisdom. Facebook is a wonderful tool, connecting you to long lost friends, keeping in touch with family members, and providing breaking news from your favorite company, restaurant, or team, but there are also the negatives attached to this worldwide phenomenon.

Let’s say that you and your family are going on a cruise to the Caribbean. You are all packed and ready to go, excited about the fun in the sun, so you figure that before you go, you need to update your status, alerting all of your friends that they will not be graced with your creative quips for a whole week. What many of us forget to realize is that more often than not, the information you are sharing on Facebook is open to the public eye. All of your friends and family members will be able to see your statuses, pictures, and other postings, but complete strangers have that same ability. You return home from your cruise to find that your house was broken into, due to the fact that you shared your family’s whereabouts and timetable for your return.

This is happening more and more frequently, and we need to be aware of what we are sharing online. If you are excited about your upcoming trip and want to tell some close friends, pick up the phone and call them to let you know you are going out of town. Coordinate with a trusted neighbor, so that they may keep an eye on your place while you are gone. This is certainly not limited to vacation postings, but everyday occurrences. Scrolling through the “Time Line” of Facebook, you see numerous individuals delving every little detail of their day, complete with exact locations and whom they are with. Information that is extremely important to protect, should stay that way. Just because we have the ability to allow individuals a look into our day-to-day life, doesn’t mean that we should.